UT, FBI investigating kidnapping calls to parents

The FBI has joined a probe by University of Texas at Austin campus police into anonymous kidnapping calls made to students’ parents.

Campus police Sgt. Charles Bonnet tells KVUE-TV in a report on its website that officers have heard from only two families in the last six weeks, and he does not believe UT parents are being targeted.

Still, campus police are alerting all parents about callers claiming to have kidnapped their son or daughter.

The ABC affiliate reports:

In each of the two cases, a person with an accent has called demanding a small amount of money be transferred into an out of the country bank account.

“In one case it was a thousand dollars so the kind of amount where if you were a parent and you were scared and for whatever reason you couldn’t get a hold of your son or daughter right away, that’s the kind of money somebody might be able to put their hands on quickly without necessarily going to get a loan,” Bonnet tells the Austin TV station.